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Do Developers Need Free Perks To Thrive?
jammag writes "Free sodas, candy and energy bars can be surprisingly important to developers, says longtime coder Eric Spiegel. They need the perks, not to mention the caffeine boost. More important, free sodas from management are like the canary in the coal mine. If they get cut, then layoffs might be next. 'The sodas are just the wake-up call. If the culture changes to be focused more on cost-cutting than on innovation and creativity, then would you still want to work here? I wouldn't.' Are free perks really that important?"
I'd rather have a larger paycheck.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
...that something could be amiss. That said, quite often the perks come right back when the company does better.
It's not just coders that like free perks...project managers, HR people, and the people who run the business like them as well.
YES
Just pay more than your competition
Free soda, candy = free diabetes
Free caffeine = free hypertension & stomach disorders
Screw that garbage; give me sane work life balance. Burning the midnight oil coding is fun; I was young once too. After a while, though, your body just won't take as much abuse as it used to.
I used to work for a well-known company that had no perks except a very modest employee discount and was laser-focused on controlling costs. I used to joke that they probably had a profit target for the vending machines. Guess what? I didn't give a shit because business was great, therefore stock was going up and that provided me with a nice 50% income boost every year.
Of course. Duh.
Yes, while having these perks is nice, the narrative in this story makes the guy sound like an entitled twat.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Creating a supportive and productive environment isn't just something restricted to businesses employing software developers, it's just the only industry left that actually gives even the slightest bit of a thought to the happiness of its employees.
>Shaun was the lone health nut on our team and therefor was taking the changes in stride. “You people should be thanking Cheryl. You’ll have less unpleasant trips to the dentist.”
I didn't know it was a necessity that trips to the dentist had to be unpleasant. I've had some that actually were pleasant. Seems the health nut might just have rotten teeth. Sorry bud.
I've been in software development for 15 years now and I never had any of the stuff provided. And I'm glad they didn't. I'd be a fat turd now with diabetes. And the caffeine rush only lasts for about 15 minutes. So it's a myth. You'd be better off putting the money towards better tools, or a in-house better tools program (unassigned work time) so developers can pursue pet projects.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
It's not the free drinks or candy, although those things are nice. What developers want is to feel like they matter to the company. One of the ways a company can do that is to provide some small freebies. But freebies alone don't cut it.
If the pay is good then the extra perks offered are optionally consumed. Just because it's free doesn't mean you have to eat/drink it. I would rather drink water with a small amount of Mio added for flavor (I can't stand plain water). The primary perk(s) I want, being able to dress casually every day (shorts if I want) and listening to music without headphones.
BTW My company use to offer free soda but due to stupid employees opening cans then leaving them all over the office, soda is now 25 cents/can. Personally I would raise it to 50 cents but then again I rarely drink it so I don't care.
I have a number of coworkers who basically don't function until their second cup of coffee in the morning. Providing coffee, tea, and soda is a no-brainer for increased productivity.
FWIW, most "free food" programs encourage workers to come in earlier (for breakfast) or stay later (work past dinner time) or to not spend a long time off the company property over lunch. The extra time at work usually pays for the food costs. When we have "crunch time" and are working late, my company orders food for people putting in extra hours. It's probably cheaper than overtime as well.
Aretha Franklin knows what we need.
I wish my problem was whether or not my employer had free sodas.
Now Sue’s frowned. “Ok, now you need to take a step back. Not only do you have a job, but a well-paying job.
That about sums it up.
After reading that "article", I could honestly say that I couldn't hold it against an employer who wanted to hire H1-Bs so they wouldn't have to put up with entitlement bullshit.
I'd be happy to have that job and pay for my own whatever.
However, if you're dealing with really top talent people like to be in a nice work environment.
This isn't exclusive to developers. You see this in business management. Corporate headquarters are often very nice buildings. Senior management gets lots of perks.
The free sodas developers get is trickle down of that. Its not a free private jet. Its a cheap machine the company can maintain in your recreation room. If they company is so strapped for cash that they're scrapping that then yeah... layoffs are very likely.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I kind of feel like this is a complete crock. Do all environments have foosball, nerf guns and bags of doritos hanging out for consumption? Uh, no. I couldn't care less about free snacks and a "dotcom atmosphere". Most important things are not to let superficial requests get in the way of a decent process, building a decent process to begin with and having a decent team (er, to precede "begin with"...). If you *need* that shit to feel like you have a decent environment, good luck 20 years later. Sure, you could argue that free snacks help build team morale. Personally, I'd say that was bogus crap masquerading as perks.
"Hey, we gave you caffeine, sugar and salt - can't you just code the damn thing even though we jammed a lot of last minute shit in the project plan?"
At one shop, when it was taken away, it was done as the company transitioned from being a private, all-engineers company to a corporate entity run by bean counters. Short-sighted as there were quite a few leaving as a result in the slash-and-burn of culture from trust to thumbscrews.
Last place I was at had pop, mostly for customers. I always found it directly at odds with the regular drum beat of people losing weight and staying in shape to keep health costs under control.
The perks themselves may not be that important to many employees. What matters is that the existence of the perks sends a message: that the company values its employees and is willing to put some amount of effort into retaining them. As the original article pointed out, if a company isn't willing to spend a few bucks on free food and drinks that the employees value, how long will it be until the work environment deteriorates in other ways?
Things are different if you work for a nonprofit and/or government agency where there is less discretionary income. You know what you're getting into. But a for-profit company has the choice. If they cut out minor perks like free soda, they're saying that they are willing to piss off their employees to add a few bucks to the bottom line. Either that, or they really are on the verge of bankruptcy – and in both cases it's a good idea to be looking for the exits.
The best perk for me has always been interesting work in a congenial environment. Everything else is secondary. It helps to be a senior person, so my tasks are usually along the lines of "Figure out $newtechnology. Find a way for the company to make money with it."
I've worked for a number of companies who did the "we pay less but we're such a great place to work!" thing. Someday I'd like to at least visit a "we pay lots but it sucks to work here" company, just to see what it's like.
...laura
It's not just the caffeine that benefits the company by stimulating workers, but also that you don't have staff doing daily coffee runs for a half hour.
aye, too much sugar and welcome diabetes
Is to let the developers work and have fun. Don't stand over them demanding strict and tight control, the more fun you make the job the better it will get done.
This stank of an IT World piece, but it wasn't. I guess it just stinks.
As someone who doesn't want diabetes or to become overweight, I would prefer healthy food. I'm sick of the "candy, fast food, pizza" atmosphere in IT. I feel like a lot of companies who buy their employees food tend to focus solely on those which are bad for our health.
Yes.
At my place of employment, we provide our own caffeine fixes, and have rotation on who buys the filters, coffee/teabags, and the creamer.
Our boss supplied us with the coffee maker, and the breakroom fridge. (Where we store the iced tea)
Soda can be a surprisingly expensive vice, and promotes obesity way more than other forms of caffeinated beverage typically do. Especially when the soda in question is a name brand, like Mtn Dew, (vs generic, like "dewdrop").
For candy, I usually stock up on bulk candy, like kopikos (a fantastic coffee flavored candy), at the local asian store, and at bulk retailers like sam's club. I can get a 2lb. Bottle of individually wrapped kopikos for 5$, and can get other misc candy at sams similarly cheaply.
Asking the employer to provide these products seems unreasonable to me. The employer should instead just allow anytime consumption of such treats. (Some employers are downright sticklers about food and drink being around computer equipment, or about consumption outside of breaktimes.)
Just set up a rotation for who buys the snacks, and who gets the drinks, and set up a piggy bank in the breakroom. If that isn't feasible For some reason, (big cube farm?), then ask the employer to put in "anytime" pop and snack machines.
The real warning sign is when managemet focuses on having you chained to your desk vs having you be productive. (And accordingly is miserly about catching you out of your desk, or getting said drink or snack when you need it.) That is a sign of incompetent management grasping for some metric that they can report for their effectiveness, other than real productivity, and is a sign to escape.
There is too much blood in my caffeine system. We brew starbucks and Seattle's best in the kitchen. Lemme run and get my afternoon fix.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I don't want to know how much our company spends on K-Cups, sugar, and creamer each month. And we're a small group of around 15!
The majority of places I've worked that really put effort into keeping a stocked kitchen do so for pretty manipulative reasons. They plan on absurd amounts of overtime or even unpaid hours and know that people are going to be less inclined to agree if their body is screaming for dinner.
Everything will be taken away from you.
At a company that I was at, there was a particularly bad time. So they went into cost-cutting mode. In one week, they announced a 10% interim salary reduction, and moving from milk in the floor kitchen to whitener.
Strangely, people accepted the 10% reduction (which was repaid in full and in lieu when times got better). But, oh my, the uproar about the whitener vs the milk. It was the only continual negativity during that week. They did bring back milk after a couple of weeks, bringing back the salary cut in a couple of quarters.
I think one of two things happened. 1) The company found something that would make the mornings, mid-mornings and afternoons less enjoyable in the office. 2) The company pulled a sleight-of-hand, coupling a direct, continual impact with a bi-weekly impact in the pocket. Overall, I think it was well played by the management.
1) A decent ergonomic chair that works for people 2 meters tall
2) A door
3) A manager who will
a) go to the meetings on my behalf and send me the 3-line email with the one detail that I needed to be there for
b) find interesting work for me to do
4) A bonus program that has clear, achievable objectives that pay out at least something if I beat my goals -- don't pull the rug out from under my feet if I've been slaving, just because Sales can't get in the door
Design for Use, not Construction!
Not trying to be an ass here, but Eric Spiegel's self-agrandizing "columns" have been discussed on Slashdot before. Based on his past writings, he seems to think it's ok to treat people like cattle. (Give the cows a salt lick, they'll feel better. Give the developers their carbonated sugar water, they'll feel better.) He also doesn't miss an opportunity to point out how smart he thinks his decisions are, and his writings have an "I told you so" undertone. I can't help but get the feeling that he writes to help convince himself that he was right, if not others. If he were my boss, I'd transfer or quit, and if I couldn't transfer or quit, I'd lie down on his desk and slit my wrists.
One of the worst places I've worked had a well stocked break room. Sodas, chips, ice cream, everything short of a full meal. They patted themselves on the back about how well they treated their employees. And failed to treat them well in the areas that matter.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
It's nice to be able to hit the gym and/or bike into work. I've been lucky enough to work for a couple of companies that have showers, and it's a perk I'd hate to go without.
sig: sauer
Of course, don't let your company health care provider hear that you have a fridge of 240-calorie insulin-bombs stalking the corridor...
Then mention in passing to the insurer that Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite Zero, Diet Mtn Dew, Pepsi Max, and Dr Pepper Ten aren't exactly "insulin bombs".
the head of NCR (way back in the first half of the 20th century) was asked about the generous "fringe benefits" the company provided (including a golf course). He pointed out that employees were move productive when provided with the benefits. In his opinion NCR wasn't "giving away" anything, just doing what was best for the company.
any "perks" (like free soda) only increase productivity if the employee is happy with their base compensation. If someone thinks they are drastically underpaid/unvalued then no amount of freebies will matter
if someone feels like they are valued and doing important work - then they will be more productive/loyal
my guess is that the return on investment for free soda/coffee (in increased productivity) is extremely high - but it isn't about the soda
There is actually quite a bit of research on this type of thing - I'd recommend "Drive" by Daniel Pink and "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely (he just did a coursera class as well) for anyone interested ...
It ain't what they call you. It's what you answer to. http://mylyceum.us/
...in TFA, they didn't get rid of sodas and energy bars.
Which of your friends would you lay off, instead, to save money? Or, better still, why don't you take the bullet and give up your job so everyone else can have the freebies?
Uh-huh. Thought so.
When you start seeing perks as entitlements, that's the real danger. Most places I've worked the coffee is free but soda (or anything else) never has been.
Just give me money and normal working hours. Keep the spa, gourmet meals, XBox, and all that other crap. Pay me well and let me have a life outside of work.
I do believe it is a canary in a coal mine. I'm amazed at companies that will have no problem spending $125,000 in salary on a high end programmer, which is probably $150,000 with benefits and all that but if they want a second monitor for $400 it's a big no-can-do. Soda/tea/coffee is $0.10-$0.30 a serving, even if someone were a major drinker at 5 servings a day of the expensive stuff that's $375/person/year, or about the same cost. Gives you an idea of what they are willing to spend on a happy, productive employee.
People don't need a lot to be happy, but basic respect and curtesy go a long way. If you went to someone's house to visit them one of the first things they are likely to offer is some sort of beverage. It's basic hospitality. And the company isn't just inviting the employees into their environment, but what about vendors, partners, or customers come to visit? There should be something to offer to them.
Lots of management types are under the impression that getting a paycheck is what makes people happy. It's a false logic, just because not getting a paycheck makes people unhappy doesn't mean it works the other way around.
There's two things to this story.
1. "perks" - but I wouldn't want to call it perks. It's efficiency benefits. Coders and other creative people work better if you make sure they (we?) have everything they need. Coffee, snacks, soda, bananas... that extra half hour of effective coding a day pays off _quickly_.
But it's really the same with things you wouldn't consider "perks" - computers and OSes that helps efficiency, ergonomic chairs and keyboards, silent enough environments, few enough meetings... everyone can probably easily make up their own list of what *they* need to be an efficient and creative at the workplace. Those needs should be grouped with the soda.
Personally, I rather have a creative and happy workplace than higher salary. But then again, I like to spend my work-time creative and happy.
2. The other thing the article is talking about is the warning sign. If things like free soda gets pulled - which doesn't cost much - much bigger things are on the horizon. Update your linkedin profile. Start looking for a new place... This is absolutely true.
(GM pulled the free coffee - a little later they sold the office, and a little later went economically haywire. Most people had left just a little after the coffee incident.)
Other warning signs includes phrases like "business as usual".
(Right now I wouldn't want to work at Google, for instance.)
That said, my office doesn't have free soda. But the work is very creative and full of freedom and I'm quite happy anyway. :)
Unreasonable and impossible deadlines and demands, in a competitive office atmosphere, added to one of the most intellectually demanding activities there is. Try programming a database with complex SQL filters, and have the client change his mind a half a dozen times halfway to the deadline! You can be a dumb ass and go cheap, or keep the popcorn and Coke flowing. I know which one will get the job done sooner and better.
How do you get diabetes from Diet Mtn Dew, and how do you get "hypertension & stomach disorders" from coffee or Diet Mtn Dew in moderation?
I used to work for a small private equipment reliability company. The culture was great and I enjoyed working for the owners. Eventually, they sold the company to a large publicly owned company. The first things that they cut were the free sodas, and every developer with any coding experience jumped ship because they all saw that things were going downhill. About 6 months after the free sodas were cut, they started laying off people throughout the company. (Un)fortunately, the particular office I left didn't have any lay-offs because most of the developers already left.
If that free perk was soda machines and other junk crap like that? Fuck no.
If that free perk was a decent-ish cafeteria with some good, simple tasty food? Hell yes. Especially some foods that are aimed at wakening people up, like spicy things.
Also, note not large meals, you could order one, but it would cost. The aim is at smaller meals. Larger meals are known to be detrimental to brain function for a short period after eating, really makes a difference in how you think and act. Smaller meals are handled much better as the effect is minimal.
Throw in a few rec rooms, like a small gym, ping pong table, maybe few games machines, another few yesses.
A little exercise and quick shower and snack is far better than just drinking some crappy caffeine and eating Monster Munch.
The company expects me to put in long hours when projects demand it. They expect me to shuffle my lunch around or even skip it completely to get the work done. Well, I need something to eat and drink while I'm working. If I can't conveniently get it in the break room, a quick walk from my desk, then I need my lunch at a reasonably predictable time and I need to be able to go home to eat at a consistent hour. If the company expects work out of me, I expect a certain amount of "perks" from the company in return. If the company doesn't want to help, I'm not going to feel as helpful either. And I'll probably start looking for somewhere else, because once that trend starts of expecting from the developers while not giving a bit in return it inevitably ends in tears. I'd rather they not be mine.
I work as a contractor for a very large technology business. I have been working from home for the past few years. Recently the VPN started giving me trouble so I went in the office to work. They now have this fancy Starbucks coffee machine in the break room that serves fresh hot coffee 24/7. They've had free coffee before, but it usually was cold, stale and bad-tasting. You only drank it if you were desperate. But this new machine (Starbucks Interactive Cup Brewer) kicks ass.
I have lately been going in the office, mostly for good free coffee and while I am there I do work and I am quite productive with a good cup of coffee in my hand. I even find myself going in there during the weekends for good coffe (I live very close) and while I am there doing good work. I think the company is getting really good return on their investment.
Sure, the trick may not work for everybody, but my guess is that there are a lot of people like me who are more productive after a "good" cup of coffee.
Soda, coffee, candy.... no I don't have any interest in those specifically, but I do appreciate it when an employer offers some small perk. Maybe it's casual Friday or the managers offer to treat everyone to lunch once a month or good work being rewarded with extra paid time off. The important thing is the company makes people feel appreciated in some way.
Personally, I'm much more interested in working on interesting projects in a friendly environment than I would be in compensation or sugary food. A thank-you or a boss taking me out for lunch on my birthday goes a long way with me. Much further than free soda or a bigger cheque.
One company I worked for not only didn't provide coffee and drinks, they didn't provide coffee machines or drink dispenser machines. Even worse, they forbid coffee machines at the desk.
Not because of power supply issues, no.
Because they gave the cafeteria company an exclusive contract to supply beverages to the entire staff.
So instead of having coffee clubs like I did at most places I worked over the years, I was expected to pay nearly $2 for a sixteen ounce shitty cafeteria coffee. And I wasn't supposed to have them any time except 10, 12, and 2.
I quit.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
"Perk" is what you get out of an 18-year-old set of ... features. "Perq" is short for "perquisite" and is the subject at hand.
And if it's not free, it's not a perq.
How about we are treated as if we were as important as the marketing department? I mean, without us, there would be no product to market, correct? So how about we are treated as humans instead of code-cranking-machines who do not need food, sleep, or free time on the weekends. That would be a nice, huge change.
Imagine this pitch to an investor: "As a software company, our coders are our biggest asset. That's why we don't let them take a proper lunch, and feed them junk food and caffeine instead. This is directly reflected in the quality of their code."
On the flip side, imagine saying this in a interview: "By the way, I am not even capable of feeding myself, and I have the diet of a feral 6-year-old, so if you don't give me free candy and soda I will be unable to work and I will probably starve to death." If you live on diet coke and candy bars, you're doing it wrong. If you don't know how to go to the grocery store and buy real food, that's not your employer's fault.
There is no free junk food here. :( But we have a free gym! It's actually really nice since they care about us rather than care about what makes us happy in the moment.
The problem I see here is a narrow idea of what a 'perk' can be.
Typically office environments are over regulated, and antagonistic managers use things humans *naturally need*...random breaks, flexible hours, snack food, wearing hawaiian shirts, etc. and turn them into a *commodity for you to earn.*
Its part of the archaic business model we all struggle against.
As a former employee, I'd definitely take the *cash* over gamed-out 'perks'...
However, as a current employer, I'd like to defend the idea of a 'perk' from those who despise the notion....
See, businesses have **economy of scale**
We can buy things in bulk...including things our employees wouldn't otherwise be able to afford on their own.
To me, as a business owner, THIS is a perk....a non-compensatory benefit that you get b/c you work for me.
Food, drinks, etc. are all in this category, but that's really minor league perks. If a division leader has a budget for stuff to help employee morale, a wise use of it would maximize the economy of scale and wholesale access...not just get a discount on pizza (although that's nice too sometimes)
ex: when I was a snowboarding instructor, one of our 'perks' was that the managers would let us buy as much as we wanted off of their 'pro form' from their corporate sponsors. Which means snowboarding gear at 50% of *wholesale*....that was a fskign 'perk'...and it helped our performance as employees!
Most biz perks are just gaming out your needs and using it as a carrot/stick...
Thank you Dave Raggett
I stopped drinking soda many months back, but I see such perks as signs of a company's financial health, just like the OP suggests.
So...
Masters in CS
Make 35K a year
Health benefits
Matching retirement
Free bus (parking is super expensive)
Why do I work this job? Simple
1. I get to do cool shit.
2. It's academics.
"Free sodas, candy and energy bars"
I'm sitting in an office of developers right now and not one of us cares about any of those things. Perks like extra money, a free lunch once in a while, etc is much more satisfying since none of us drink or eat that junk.
Steve Blank posted about this a couple of years ago:
The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free
> I had lived through this same conversation four times in my career, and each time it ended as an example of unintended consequences. No one on the board or the executive staff was trying to be stupid. But to save $10,000 or so, they unintentionally launched an exodus of their best engineers.
By and large they have twin motives
1.) Keep people on campus/in the building... Close to their desks and working.
2.) Create an illusion of privilege
I've seen WAY too many people take lower pay for the "prestige" of being called senior blah or director or manager... And the work performed is the same. so maybe the ordering of the above is incorrect.
pay me so I can decide for myself what I need
In the end, its all about quality of life.
Would I be willing to take a lower-paying job that I really loved when compared to a higher-paying job that I dreaded going to? Yes.
Having a flexible work environment is something that would keep me working for less of a paycheck and still be happy. On the other hand, a very restrictive work environment I'm really not going to like so I better have good pay.
"Free perks" do not mean that developers thrive, but a relaxed work environment (that costs next to nothing!) helps developers thrive. Flexible hours and a relaxed dress code (T-shirt, shorts and flip flops should be ok) cost nothing to implement but yet can really help tech-minded people thrive. The thing is, managers who understand how the "techie mind" work generally tend to go a bit overboard and include a bunch of other stuff too, which does help, but not to the same degree.
Bottom line, if you expect your IT people and developers to come in wearing suits from 9-5 and be "productive" for all those hours sitting quietly in a cubicle, you're going to have to pay your tech people a lot. On the other hand, if you can make going to work feel more like a hobby, more relaxed and more interesting, you can find people who will work for you for less.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
You'd give up working from home for coffee? You are insane!
Are all developers teenagers now? Who would be interested for those things if they are over 20 years old?
My employer supplies coffee, tea and soup and that is enough to get us through the day. I prefer to have this employer who considers the future by giving us plenty of train courses than to have one who gives out sugary treats.
Granted, I have no experience in American corporate culture so Yanks might prefer that more. I remember from my experience whilst employed in China that it was thought of as something important to get a lunch supplied there.
They can keep the soda, just don't take away my hookers and blow.
Wait, wrong occupation. Sigh...
that's all those perks are. Sure, it's nice to have someone feeding you free sodas and the like but at the end of the day take home pay is all that really matters. That and getting treated in a dignified way. Most places are offering more or less the same benefit packages. I tend to focus more on the bottom line take home pay. Bonuses rarely pan out in full. Same for stock options.
If they want to give me free drinks and snacks that's fine but it won't make me work any harder. I arrive motivated and I want to get paid for every hour I work - including overtime. Flat salary positions are for the birds, particularly in IT where there always seems to be some looming deadline that management has over promised on.
free perks about working late / working lunches
I've been told I should be happy that I'm getting paid.
The author goes out of his way to paint free soda as a business requirement for employing developers, but that's patently ridiculous. Further, loss of free soda isn't going to be either a 'wake up call' or incite mass employee exoduses, regardless of the company. Company policies change all the time, and there's no way to predict the motivations so astutely from something that has so little impact on the bottom line. He may have been right in this case, but in my opinion, the author comes off as a self-entitled douche with a 'told-you-so' attitude based on a single personal experience and no understanding of the business motivations other than what he can assume.
In fact, based on his recollection of the dialog, I suspect most of this article was a fabrication to justify his position. "Sipping soda helps keep me in rhythm while I code. It’s hard to explain–it’s like a part of my creative process." - said no one ever.
The importance is far overblown.
Perks are just that - perks. You don't need them to do your job, to enjoy your job, or to be productive. There are plenty of companies that do fine with little to no perks, and ones that do horribly with many. The further idea that developers themselves are some sort of unique breed of employee that needs a perk ration to perform at their best is pure hubris. An employee's job is not defined as collection of perks to either the employee or the employer. It's the work that defines it, and anyone not mature enough to come to grips with that is going to have problems in a corporate environment.
That being said, occasional perks can provide short term boosts in productivity or morale. Company parties, bringing pizza in, and so on. They are demonstrations of a company or manager's respect for an employee, and make an employee feel valued far beyond the monetary worth. They can be good investments.
However, you can't just keep showing up to say 'good job' every day, and expect it to keep having an impact. Any long term perk - like free coffee or soda - will eventually become the norm. They might encourage potential new employees, but the only way those perks affect morale is negatively - if it's taken away.
Personally, I always thought it was worse when perks were unevenly applied. This class of employee gets _x_, but no one else. Seems like a big morale killer if it's not doled out fairly, with an objective merit-based system.
Not all developers are sedentary fat fucks who slurp down soda all day and get the rest of their nutritional intake from candy.
And unless you are the guy who consumes way more than everyone else then why would you want what could be money in your pay packet subsidizing their obesity?
At least here in Europe: a company won't get me if there is no free fucking coffee. I drink about 10 cups of it per day. No coffee == no work. Period.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
I worked for a company where we had 100% dental for just about any procedure; it was awesome. Our company was purchased by a stodgy company run by 60 year old suits so I quit. Weeks later the first thing to go was the 100% dental. Two years later 95% of the staff were gone with only the most useless paper pushers remaining; basically people who couldn't move on.
What I have discovered with programmers is that the good ones are quite smart and don't take much crap. So a clear and fair salary system that is open works far better than the pretending that nobody blabs their and any other salaries that they know. If you want to quickly empty out a room of your best programmers reveal that some useless stump of a manger earns 3 times as much and blew at least one of their salaries on travel.
Or if you want them to quit after a few weeks of seething then just do a nepotism hire and put him in charge of "code reviews".
The key is not so much that perks make or break an environment but that they indicate a respect for the programmers. Often programmers are somewhat trapped in the office while the marketing and management get to travel and wine and dine clients. Thus throwing them some bones such as food and conference travel balances out the equation. But once management starts to act like the programmers are a bunch of undeserving brats it is game over.
One company that I particularly enjoyed quitting from would have the upper management basically give customer tours of the programmers like we were a zoo exhibit.
The best part of when they cut a perk and lose programmers is how many of the management seem to think that the pathetic losers quit because they took away the free drinks or some such. Then they get angry when they realize how development has screeched to a halt when the only 3 competent programmers just took off. I have even heard accusations of sabotage.
As someone who works as a developer at a company (Amazon) that provides very little in the way of perks for its employees and openly has a policy of being frugal (aka cheap), I can say that the absence of these things definitely has an effect on employee morale, especially when many other companies in the same sector provide such benefits. Personally, I would gladly take a small hit to my salary for things like free lunch or even snacks. It's depressing when managers refuse to pay for even simple recreational equipment or activities, even when it costs the company almost nothing, relatively.
Of course, my experience may or may not be typical; other divisions in the company may have a different experience.
i get the cool free perks n all , candy n soda seriously??
give me free i.e free,free free free free , or very inexpensive health and dental with ways to re-educated inexpensively and i'd be a contented worker till i was sufficiently skilled to move on to something better.
For me, free snacks are a minus. I am trying to keep a handle on my weight. And I will admit it, I have very little control over eating food with lots of calories. I.e. most snacks. I manage it personally by not having any junk food at home.
Snacks at work make it too easy to say "Oh, I will only have one..."
Those things aren't perks to the job so much as mood elevators that create a friendly, inviting, and even party-like atmosphere that elevate mood and creativity.
Those aren't "free perks", they're investments in novel software.
Dystopian science fiction often shows future soldiers or workers being drugged with exotic chemicals to increase productivity, but in reality companies have been drugging employees for a couple hundred years with sugar and caffeine to keep them going. It's in your employer's best interest to keep you hydrated and alert. As for free or just reasonably priced, I don't care. For me, if I'm at the office at 8pm and I have two more hours to finish something, a can of coke is often the difference between me staying or just saying, "screw it, I'll finish tomorrow."
On top of that why does your employer owe you health insurance in the first place? That also used to be something that was a fringe benefit that people then started to expect and demand like it was owed to them.
Around about the time the healthcare providers started charging individuals 2x and 3x the bill that they would send to the insurance companies (or at least the amount that the insurance companies assert that the services should cost). If you're not in some kind of group plan, you're getting incredibly ripped off.
*sigh* Youngins today. Health are switched from a fringe benefit to compensation expected by employees when Nixon placed a freeze on salaries. Employees expected to continue to receive raises so employers started offering to pay for your healthcare.
In its own socialist way employer-paid healthcare is our little guy equivalent to how CEO's started getting massive non-cash benefits like corporate jets for personal commuting as an end-run around attempts to limit their salaries.
Not as long as I can go home at 5, no.
Disclaimer: MINAA (Mummy! I'm Not An Animal!)
Engineers don't need perks.
OTOH, employers spend less money when they're "giving away" $1 snacks and drinks than when engineers use 15 minutes of their time (70-$100 in fully burdened costs is not out of line) for a round trip to the corner convenience store which means less time left to work in a day.
Options are ancient history in big companies.
By the time I got there in 2006 Microsoft was issuing restricted stock units - regular stock that you gain control of as it vests. When I went to Amazon I got RSUs there too. Valley companies seem fond of them as well.
Options today are mostly for startups where the current value is approximately zero which means there can't be a down side; although it's usually possible to convert those to restricted stock via early exercise, at which point you can make an 83(b) election to establish a low basis and start the clock ticking on the year after which any upside will be taxed as capital gains.
When the hunger comes I can stick around for dinner after which it's more convenient to keep working at my desk until I'm at a convenient stopping point (however long it takes) or I can head home, make something or wait for my wife to do that, and by the time I've eaten switching back into work mode would be too inconvenient so it waits until necessary the next day..
Add up the cost of these perks and compare it as a percentage of your salary. It's like the Cheers episode where Sam and Woody both go in demanding raises from Rebecca and walking out satisfied with new titles.
Being free to choose the size of your deductable is great.
Health insurance that covers every little medical expense doesn't make sense. It's like a car insurance policy that pays for oil changes and tire replacements. If I want that, I am free to choose that kind of plan (and the higher premiums that go with it). But those with a little bit of sense choose a higher deductable, and save a lot of money in the long run. I pity people who live in countries that don't allow the freedom to make such choices.
You seem to not understand how pre-Obamacare health plans work in the U.S., because all four of your points are invalid.
1. If I lose my job and have no income, I'll still be covered by Medicaid.
2. It's against the law for my insurer to drop me or raise my premiums if I get sick.
3. Regardless of whether I'm able to present my insurance card (or even whether I'm insured at all) after I've been in an accident, the emergency room will give me the same quality of treatment, and sort it out later.
4. Thanks to my choosing a high-deductable plan, my bank account is much larger than it otherwise would be, and I'm better able to afford visits to a doctor. Some people might blow the money they save on beer, instead of socking it away, but do you really want to design a healthcare system that rewards that kind of irresponsible behavior?
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
That most employers have no clue how far making me feel cared about goes.
I've worked for a Swiss/French based company and when over there visiting the main office, they had the bare minimum when it came to the kitchen compared to US based companies where we do have soda/beer/snacks/free pizza. I was wondering if this is the norm or was I in a crap environment?
On the main subject: The more perks, the better talent you recruit and remain loyal. Look at Google where they have free cars, laundry, day care, meals, etc... Attrition (good or bad) aside, you don't want your talent to walk away because you won't write off the expense of a dollar for a can of soda.
We're sort of in a question mark regarding healthcare as the costs have gone up for everyone in anticipation of what will happen in a couple years. I'm not sure why we are dumping this all on insurance companies when there are no price controls anywhere else in healthcare or eased FDA certification or tort reform but I think sometime this decade we will be neck deep in reforming everything once everyone in the US gets dropped into public health care (you know it will happen).
boom goes the dynamite....
Companies that provide snacks and drinks expect an ROI. And they all know how to offshore your overpaid code-monkey ass so shut up and get back to work.
-- Jimtown Kelly
Take RogueWave. Before the VCs took over, the coffee there was so good you really didn't mind the urine so much. After the VCs took over, the coffee there was so bad, the urine improved the flavor.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Wow. Cutting out free sodas would lower your morale? I'm not digging you but...
What would lower my morale? Working on boring, unchallenging projects. Working on pointless, avoidable death-marches. Working with insecure, stupid people. Using inferior, productivity-crippling tools. Working in small, loud, cramped cube. Having reduced free time. Seeing less of my kids. Working out less frequently (tied into the death marches, etc.)
But sodas? I don't think would really rate for me.
Not trying to hijack your thought, its just that something like sodas are so inconsequential **to me** that I just cant relate.
I realize why I am looking at a career shift that is still relevant to my skills and miles away from any self-styled "software developers". The biggest concerns are Healthcare, lots of snacks, and profit sharing. Who up-modded all of this crap? The fattest, greediest children I've ever come across fucking get a grip!
Unlike the HDHP's, a real plan won't leave you hanging when something major wipes out the account. That and all the "tax savings" don't do any good when they cause more problems.
Going rarely screws you as much as going often.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
FWIW, most "free food" programs encourage workers to come in earlier (for breakfast) or stay later (work past dinner time) or to not spend a long time off the company property over lunch. The extra time at work usually pays for the food costs.
It pays MUCH more than that. A typical thing that happens at startups is the company buys dinner - and the bulk of the engineers chow down and stick around another four hours. Not only do they get half-again as much time, but they get it in a block. For a programmer or other design engineer that means they haven't "lost state" and are even more productive than if they'd just worked three days instead of two.
Even if only a third of the people stick around after din-din (and it's usually more), it's still the equivalent of getting more better than a 10% increase in manpower for the price of nine dinners (in bulk) per day per extra head - FAR less than the cost of hiring another head.
And then there's an adminstrative pathology: The new management comes in, sees how much is spent on the food (but not how much is gained as a result), decides that their predecessors were stupid and the employees were looting the company, and stops the food. So come dinner time the employees go out (or home) to dinner and don't come back. Immediately it's like they lost somewhere between 10% and 33% of their work force without any reduction in payroll costs. (That's not counting how disgruntled some of the employees become.)
I've been at three companies where this happened, and observed several more. All but one of 'em folded shortly thereafter - and the one that survived went through a near-bankruptcy that destroyed the original investors' equity and left it in the hands of the bondholders before it recovered.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Even if only a third of the people stick around after din-din (and it's usually more), it's still the equivalent of getting more better than a 10% increase in manpower for the price of nine dinners (in bulk) per day per extra head - FAR less than the cost of hiring another head.
Did the math wrong: Make that about 17% more "heads" for the price of six dinners per night for one in three staying an extra half-shift..
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Those perks tend to keep coders at their work rather than going out for long lunches. Also, your reference to cut perks being an indicator of rocky road ahead, I agree.
Codifex Maximus ~ In search of... a shorter sig.
...Was good money, decent benefits, and for directors to stay out of the damned way. Save your stupid soda machines and Google headquarters garbage. I would never have worked there for long. Work at work, play at home! I didn't leave any corporate job until directors started either getting in the way or not delivering on the promises they traded for the sacrifices I made. Take care of your people, let them do good work.
Forget candy and sodas (neither of which I can eat anyway so who cares), the best perk is the book perk. When a company buys you the new O'Reilly book, it's saying your continued development as a professional actually matters to them. I use that as the real barometer.
My company took away the free soda. Work continued and it was not a big deal. Why would anyone expect for a company to pay for their groceries anyway? Technically, if the logistics were realistic, I'd have no problem paying for my toilet paper. Paying for what I use makes sense to me.
An even better way, than Microsoft's concept of future-vested shares (what MS replaced options with when their stock stopped growing).... IS IMMEDIATE PROFIT-SHARING OUT OF THE COMPANY'S NET INCOME, like my current employer, a privately-held multinational does it. Once a year in early January, an amount approximately equal to 30% of my annual salary minus taxes, has shown up in my bank account. Shafted out of a quarter million dollars of unvested stock when I ended up laid off by a crappy Microsoft manager, I'll never again accept work at one of these future-vesting companies without a very high salary that will leave me satisfied even if I never see a dime of unvested bonus. Yes, I worked like a dog on an influential project and got some top notch performance review scores in order to collect that much in my unvested stock column. But a newly promoted manager jealous that he hadn't rated the same when we were peers made sure I wasn't around to collect it. A person has better stuff to worry about in life than loser managers using their ability to play "indian giver" on compensation earned by that worker. So, not again. And if I do get a high salary at a future-vesting company, you better believe I won't be worrying about busting the curve to earn incentive compensation I may never actually see a dime of.
That is the best perk instead of some pointless junk food perk. I worked for a sweatshop where they provided lunch but it was jsut to try to rpevent you from leaving at lunch...screw that...
At a prior gig, there was free soda. It was mostly Coke/Pepsi, which I didn't care for. I wanted some Code Red. I found out who did the buying. I found out that she was part Norwegian. I brought in a plate full of Kransekake (ring-shaped, Norwegian marzipan cookies; I have the recipe and I've made them before). I waved 'em under her nose. Her eyes lit up. "Repeat after me: we're going to get some Code Red in the soda cooler." She repeated it. I left the cookies. Later that week, Code Red appeared in the cooler.
A little social engineering goes a long way.
... by the Dew of Mountains the thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning
Here are mine:
1. Ask the developer to go drive the floor cleaning machine on the factory floor and get angry at them when they decline. (I resigned a position over this)
2. Ignore the developer when he protests one-on-one to you about being required to spend 60 hours per week in the office for months at a time. (I am about to resign a position over this)
3. The developer finds out that the layers of management above him makes about $110,000 yearly + bonuses when they don't do anything difficult and spend only 20 hours a week in the office.
Maybe it's because I've never worked in a purely dev. shop and have always been sitting with not just developers, but about the only regular perk I get is free coffee and tea. I sat for six weeks at a shop that had free sodas and bagels and crap in the breakroom. It was handy because I was living in a hotel the whole time.
I learned that I'd have cared a lot about that at 22 or so coming out of college. Now that I'm 34, I don't care. Free coffee is nice as it saves me time in the afternoon if I want some and don't want to take time to seek it out and buy it or get stuck with instant. Outside of that, I found that having all the sodas and bagels and crap didn't save me time so much as make me gain 10 lbs. in that time and made me groggy and never leave the building. Not leaving the building as often made my thinking (and therefore my coding) crap, because I didn't get a breather and ultimately spun my wheels on stupid crap for too long instead of having a fresh start.
Know what perks I want? Good management. The right tools to do my job. A kitchen area to heat up the food I bring and maybe some plastic silverware to eat with. Coworkers who aren't assholes. Educational opportunities. Good benefits. European style vacation. Telecommuting options.
The whole "keep the coders in the building" thing doesn't really work for me. I need breaks and to interact with people or non-tech stuff. Otherwise, at best I get groggy and slow, and at worst, I totally lose perspective about what the actual users want and start churning out very powerful code that's essentially useless.
Back in the early '80s we had a beer tap in the break room. It stayed locked until 5:00 PM, after that, all the beer you could drink.
/steve
It's true that the amenities an office provides can sometimes serve as a barometer of things to come, but not always. Obviously some layoffs can be so drastic that there is no warning beforehand.
My concern is with the emphasis upon unhealthy junk food being prized as tokens of opulence. Besides the questionable practice of "rewarding" employees with diabetes mellitus, tooth decay and hypertension, there are ethical concerns with supporting Nestle, Mars, and Hersheys, who buy cacao from west coast African nations that exploit child slavery, and palm oil harvested through Amazonian deforestation. Maybe the trophy should not be crappy food that's ruining your health but locally sourced produce and bean-to-bar chocolate. That latter should more clearly be recognized as a sign of prosperity.
Gov Programmer with benefits and paying into retirement. That is the ONLY reason I still work as a Gov Programmer. While entry level (private sector) web developer/help desk makes a minimum of $80k/yr. I, as a senior gov developer, barely skins $60k/yr. Take home? Roughly $40k. No perks.